AC Urges Congress to Stop the FCC’s Obama-Ordered Regulatory Attack on the Internet

Washington, D.C.—American Commitment is urging Congress to take immediate action to stop the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from implementing a federal takeover of the Internet. The renewed call for Congressional action follows FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s announcement of draconian new regulations that would transform the Internet into a public utility. A new report in today’s Wall Street Journal confirms that Wheeler opposed the order he is now set to issue on the merits but caved to political pressure from the White House:
The president’s words swept aside more than a decade of light-touch regulation of the Internet and months of work by Mr. Wheeler toward a compromise…
The prod from Mr. Obama came after an unusual, secretive effort inside the White House…
Officials told participants not to discuss the process openly…
The FCC is supposed to be an independent agency.
“Congress must use its powers and act immediately to stop President Obama’s radical ‘public utility’ Internet plan—or completely shut the FCC, a supposedly independent agency that has embarrassingly become an appendage of White House political staff,” said Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment. “Despite November’s landslide election results rejecting larger and more intrusive government, President Obama moved even further to the Left and openly demanded that the FCC take the most radical action imaginable: reducing the Internet to a ‘public utility,’ imposing sweeping new taxes and destroying private investment, competition, and innovation while putting bureaucrats firmly in control.”
“Congress must not allow President Obama to bully the FCC into seizing control over the Internet. Even the New York Times had to acknowledge that President Obama issued a ‘surprising public admonition to an independent agency.’ We urge Americans to support our petition to block this rogue action or shut down the FCC entirely.”
Americans can support the petition at: http://action.americancommitment.org/16401/congress-must-stop-fcc-power-grab/
American Commitment delivered 808,363 citizen comments opposing any regulation of the Internet to the FCC. The Sunlight Foundation later confirmed in a report that these comments represented the majority of all public comments in the FCC’s reply-comment period.